Vietnam is a thriving country and today a country at peace. Vietnam extends 1600 kilometers from China to the Gulf of Thailand.  It is the 13th most populous country in the world.  Vietnam is a beautiful jewel of Southeast Asia with it’s rugged mountains and crags, tangled riverways, rural rice paddies, blossoming economy and an ever-present charm and beauty.

The Vietnamese people are descendants of the Kinh people who migrated into the Red River Delta around 2000 years ago.  Most ethnic Vietnamese are Buddhist, with a large mix of Taoism and Confucianism.  There are about 1 million Chinese mostly living in the southern part of the country.  The Montagnard’s are hill tribes of around 8 million people that live in the mountains of north and central Vietnam.

For years the 17th parallel was the border between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to the north, and the Republic of Vietnam to the south.  Saigon fell on April 30, 1975 to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the country of Vietnam became one once again. 

Vietnam today is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).  With diplomatic relations with the US, Vietnam moves to become an industrialized nation with a somewhat liberalized market economy.